The festival, held in Central Park on the lawn between the Municipal Building and the public library, featured 19 of the county's more than 30 microbreweries. And for nearly all five hours of the festival — the only exception being a brief yet torrential downpour around 2 p.m. — the lines were 20- and 30-deep at every single tent.

"Other than the rain, it's been great to be here," said John Frazee, founder of Louisville's Gravity Brewing. "A lot of breweries are kind of tucked away in weird industrial locations, and it's hard to get the word out about ourselves. So the goal is the get them here and bring them back to our tasting room."

Exposure, for individual breweries and the Boulder County beer scene as a whole, seemed to be the theme of the day.

"The hype hasn't caught up yet," said Shaun Oshman, of Boulder. "I don't think the rest of the country knows."

John Jeffries, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, certainly knows now. He doesn't live anywhere near a microbrewery, so only one word came to mind in describing Saturday's festival.

"Awesome," he said. "Awesome flavors. Awesome people. Awesome state."

Added Avery Brewing Company events coordinator Rachael Burrell: "Yeah, I'd say Boulder has, in the past, gotten looked over. There is so much good beer here, and it's nice that this highlights only Boulder Breweries.

"For the people here, this is all in their backyard, so it's cool to get the word out there to a lot of people who don't even know that these breweries exist."

Salim said Downtown Boulder was pleased to field a diverse roster that included smaller breweries, such as Boulder's J Wells and Lafayette's Odd13, as well as Longmont's Oskar Blues, Avery, and other well established, nationally recognized brands.

"There are so many great breweries in Boulder County, you can't possibly have been to everybody's taproom. So just to learn who all these folks are and where they're located — maybe they're in your neighborhood and you never knew," Salim said.

Saturday's event was such a smash hit that a number of attendees are already clamoring for an expansion next year.

"Definitely a good idea," said Monish Sunku Praphakar, of Boulder. "I'm surprised it took this long to organize the first festival, actually."

Salim cautioned, however, that a bigger festival wouldn't necessarily be better.

"I worry a lot about falling victim to what happened to the Great American Beer Festival," she said, referencing the annual Denver extravaganza that now attracts nearly 50,000 people, and sold out in just 32 minutes last year.

"I think they started out a lot like this, and if you want to stay a small-town festival, you have to put a limit on it at some point," Salim added.

"As I'm looking out there at the lines of people, I'm thinking I wouldn't want to make it too much bigger. But we certainly will look at how much bigger we can make it. The interest is clearly there."

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